Meeting to address water quality in Copano Bay watershed

REFUGIO — Residents in the Copano Bay watershed area will have an opportunity to discuss the next steps in the process to improve watershed quality at a meeting May 30.

The meeting will be held 5:30-7:15 p.m. at the Refugio County Community Center, 305 Swift Street in Refugio.

Allen Berthold, a Texas Water Resources Institute project manager, said he will review with stakeholders the total maximum daily load process to discuss its development and implementation.

The total maximum daily load is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards, Berthold said.

The institute, which manages the project that is working with stakeholders, is part of Texas AgriLife Research, the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Dr. Kevin Wagner, associate director of the institute, will give an overview of how the stakeholders can organize and make decisions while developing the bay’s total maximum daily load.

Copano Bay near Farm-to-Market Road 136, the Aransas River below State Highway 77 and the Mission River below State Highway 77 are currently on Texas’ 2010 Water Quality Integrated Report and the list of impaired waters for not meeting state bacteria standards, Wagner said.

“The list identifies water bodies that do not meet the state’s water quality standards for their designated uses as required by the federal Clean Water Act,” he said.

Participants will have the opportunity to decide the next steps for addressing the water quality impairments in the Copano Bay watershed, Berthold said.

The project is funded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.